Thanks for the info, I checked on the price of the Corsair CX 430 ($39.99) very reasonable priced but would you recommend the Antec ATX12V 450W($38.24) as a better alternative?. I would rather put the time and money into the psu to get the best graphics card for my budget.
The Corsair power supply provides better Amperage on all rails (except 1) and you'll find the actual MAX output to be closer to 460W. I recommended the Corsair over the Antec. (A quality PSU is a builders must have)
Reviews: (note the CX430 is V1 not the V3 - but will be very similar)
http://wccftech.com/review/antec-vp450p-psu-review-power-on-a-budget/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-CX430-Power-Supply-Review/1200
I know very little about the various graphic cards on the market, so if don't mind answer these few questions;
Is a Galaxy Geforce GTX 650 GC 1GB ($114.00 and $94.00 after mail-in rebate) or the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 650 Ti ($129.99) the best card for my money and if not what's your recommendation to keep my budget around $150-$175?
I'd definitely be looking at the GTX 650 Ti. Perfect choice. Any manufacturer should be fine, I myself have MSI cards, and tend to favor gigabyte or ASUS. My friend has EVGA. My computers tend to die before the GPU does. (Still have working Ti4200 x2, 9600GT, 2x 8800 GT's)
Once I have these two items in hand how difficult is the power supply to change out?
Shouldn't be too difficult to remove the power supply, just need to be careful. Maybe take the side off the case and see how much room you have to play with before purchase. Worst case scenario you'll need to remove the Motherboard as well. could be a headache.
I've installed graphics cards before but I've heard that windows 8 causes probs. in the installation of the driver software, Is this true?
not sure on that one. I've stayed clear of Win8. Going from a Radeon to a Nvidia card, I would uninstall the display drivers before installing the new hardware.
Last question, will the installation of these two devices be worth my time and money? (Are the graphic details going to be much more enhanced?)
You will definitely see a difference. It'll be a little more the 7 times better then current. You won't be able to run games on Max settings (newer ones), but you will be able to improve game play and the visuals. around 40-50fps with a number of graphic settings on medium-high.
The card you currently have in there is not really considered a 'gaming card' - The cheapest and simplest upgrade would be the 7750 I mentioned earlier. Sub-$100 on newegg and all you'd need to do is swap it in. 30-40fps on medium settings. The card says it requires a 400W power supply, in reality it only draws ~40 Watts of power out of a possible 75W. A small gamble here, but I would take it.
All the best.
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